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I find the relationship between words and pictures endlessly intriguing. Sometimes I type a single word into the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog simply to see what variety it turns up. It’s a little like the best parts of opening a gift: full of surprises and meaning. The other day, I was meditating on the …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Mike Ashenfelder
The Smithsonian Transcription Center creates indexed, searchable text by means of crowdsourcing…or as Meghan Ferriter, project coordinator at the TC describes it, “harnessing the endless curiosity and goodwill of the public.” As of the end of the current fiscal year, 7,060 volunteers at the TC have transcribed 208,659 pages. The scope, planning and execution of the …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Cary O’Dell
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Posted in: Now See Hear!
By: Kate Murray
The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative Audio-Visual Working Group is pleased to announce that its new draft publication, Embedding Metadata in Scanned Motion Picture Film Files: Guideline for Federal Agency Use of DPX Files, is available for public comment. The Digital Picture Exchange format typically stores image-only data from scanned motion picture film or born-digital …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Dan Turello
Members of the Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. The Council includes distinguished scholars, writers, researchers and scientists. “Insights” is featuring some of the work of this highly-accomplished group of thinkers. …
Posted in: Insights
By: Nicole Saylor
The following is a guest post from AFC processing archivist Marcia Segal. The remarkable audio and video recordings in the Eleanor Dickinson collection (AFC 1970/001), recorded circa 1969-1980, capture a moment in time in the years before the Internet and other technological developments changed the way people communicate. The immediacy of religious services, (uninterrupted by …
Posted in: Folklife Today
By: Julie Stoner
While recently browsing through the National Photo Company collection, I paused when I saw this photograph. My first thought was “what happened to the top of the tree?” After puzzling about the tree for a while, I looked closer at the gathering of the Dickey family. I had to smile as I have been in …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Jaime Mears
Ashley Blewer is an archivist, moving image specialist and developer who works at the New York Public Library. In her spare time she helps develop open source AV file conformance and QC software as well as standards such as Matroska and FFV1. She’s a three time Association of American Moving Image Archivists’ AV Hack …
Posted in: The Signal
By: Lara Szypszak
Whether you like your brew light, dark, milky or sweet, this chilly weather leaves many reaching for a hot cup of coffee to warm up and wake up. As I sipped my own morning cup, I wondered what images our collections would hold of my coffee drinking comrades. I searched our holdings for relatable and …
Posted in: Picture This
By: Jaime Mears
The Digital Library Federation (DLF) 2016 Forum was held alongside the DLF Liberal Arts Colleges Pre-Conference and Digital Preservation 2016 this year from November 6-10 at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Self-described as a ”meeting place, marketplace, and congress“ of digital librarians from member institutions and the wider community, the conference, under the leadership of Bethany Nowviskie, set a …
Posted in: The Signal